Last day in Cargo ):

So today marks the final day for Phase 1. It's my last day in Cargo, and truly it's a little bittersweet for me. I've grown to like the environment and culture here. The people are very nice and forgiving, helping you to grow as a newbie, instead of trying to shut down your chances of promotion. On top of that, interaction with my bosses also allowed me to grow inside and outside. Inside, I feel that I have matured a lot in my thinking and reasoning. Outside, the way I handle people and things are also vastly different from last time. Overall, I would believe that it is a positive change.

One thing that comes with change is the ability to accept and adapt. Moving into my late-twenties, it is important that we appreciate the changes in our surroundings and assimilate into them. I shall call it the 4 As to combat change - accept, adapt, appreciate, assimilate.

Someone once told me, "It is childish to be using vulgarities." However, I do not agree with that completely. Having started work myself, vulgarities are more prominent than in school. We should grow to understand them, and not shut them out completely and force ourselves back into schooling days. In my opinion, by not accepting vulgarities, you are actually being the childish one, being the one sheltered from all the weathering and onslaught.

Changes happen anywhere and anytime, and it is up to you to decide how you are going to react to it. An egg hardens in hot water, while a carrot softens in hot water.

Post elections thoughts

And so, the long elections weekend is over. It's been a good year for PAP, clinching almost 70% of national votes. However, that does not mean that they should rest on their laurels, instead they are supposed to be working even harder to meet to the demands of the citizens. On the other hand, it's a devastating year for the opposition parties. The best performing one, WP, only managed 57% in Hougang and 51% in Aljunied, signifying a wake-up call to them.

"The 2011 elections was a wake-up call to the PAP.

The 2015 elections is a wake-up call to the opposition."

With that said, I can bravely conclude that the strength of the silent majority should not be underestimated. The crowds at the WP rallies ultimately did not translate to votes, possibly because they are the same people over and over again; or they could be people from constituencies where the WP are not contesting in. Hence, the stark difference in actual votes and "perceived" votes. However, with that said, living in an opposition GRC did not change my life any better or worse the past 4 years. True, people may argue that oppositions do not have much power in the parliament. However, it's the case whereby I don't even see Sylvia's face during her term of office, and if I don't see her, how would she know what my family needs? Well obviously, one flaw in the opposition parties is probably their area of focus. Their ideas and proposals are very tempting for the lower - middle class residents, with more subsidies and lower costs of living. However, all these actually to translate to higher taxes to be borne by the middle - upper class residents. This could also potentially be one of their downfalls.

In addition, being in parliament also means that you must be ready to represent Singapore in the international stage. However, quoting opposition leader LTK, "WP's aim is for opposition voice in the parliament, we have no intention to take over." Coupled with the fact that most of them have trouble presenting themselves decently, and their poor command of English, how do you think Singaporeans feel handing their country over to them to run? Singapore leaders are well respected all over the world, I can't imagine replacing any one of them with one of the jokers at the current stage. My prediction is that people would lose their respect they have for us, diplomatic ties may be strained, and worse case scenario, an economic downturn leading to foreign investors pulling out from our country. When that happens, it will be too late to get the PAP back into power, won't it?

To me, I don't see any problem to have oppositions in our parliament, however, we should only allow a maximum of 10% seats to them. I acknowledge that they do act upon the people's needs and voicing them out in parliament for discussion sake, however, having too many will probably hamper our policy making decisions, which I believe would ultimately have an adverse effect of us.

General Elections 2015

Disclaimer: This post is purely some food for thought, and not who I will be voting for on Friday.

Residing in Aljunied, we had the most exciting general elections back in 2011, whereby an opposition party first took over a GRC. This year, we are facing a situation whereby all 89 seats were contested, which is the first time since independence in 1965. Personally, I feel that having opposition parties present is beneficial for us because they are able to present an alternative view a one-party ruling government may miss out. Similarly, having opposition in the parliament also help keep tab on what the government is doing, and prevent any outrageous decision being made which may affect the general public adversely. After all, we are electing them to help us in essence.

However, after watching some rally videos, I am really concerned at some of the people that are actually contesting for the wards. Their ideas tend to revolve around stripping Singapore off their surpluses, or they seem to be really out of touch with the general public.

For instance, my favourite example would the return of CPF to the people. Personally, I feel that CPF is a brilliant scheme to safeguard our finances and wealth in our later years. However, I do think that there should be more transparency to how our funds are being managed. I believe many people are not happy that the excess money generated using the people's money through the investments are not coming back to the people. Well obviously, they think that the money for upgrading roads and HDB fall from the sky. And also, we do not need any surplus to tank ourselves from economic slumps. By allowing people to fully draw out their CPF at let's say 55, who can guarantee that these people will appropriately fund themselves such that the money would last them till their last breath? Assuming these old people spend all their money womanizing, or getting scammed by conmen, our government would be pressurized to provide them with financial welfare and aid. Ultimately, where do these money come from? Our taxes obviously. One fine example would be the welfare states in Europe, the taxes the people pay is actually almost double of ours, and yet they are unable to support their social structure properly! Is that a country you would want to reside in?

Another point that pisses me off is providing free tertiary education, following the Scandinavian countries. Well obviously, those who proposed this have no idea how expensive education is and want to increase the financial burden of the country. Also, they are probably unaware that the government is providing a tuition fee grant of 70% to all locals, which pushes our fees to lower than many other countries in the world. In addition, our universities are prestigious and not some lok-kok college present in certain parts of the world. Hence, is providing free education really necessary, or should the funds be channeled to more pressing issues like drug development for an aging population?

The labour market crunch is also an increasing problem to our society in my opinion. Many Singaporeans do not like the idea of having too much foreign manpower in our workforce, however one thing that they miss out is that there is a clear distinction between foreign talents and foreign workers. Yes, I do believe that foreign talents should be limited because ultimately they are the ones who will be competing against us for high-value jobs in the industry, whereas foreign workers tend to take up the roles us "atas" Singaporeans refuse to do. As a result of restricting these intakes of foreign workers, companies are actually facing a very tight labour force. One example would be my current company SATS, who employ many overseas ground staff to handle daily ops roles such as cargo handling and aircraft interior cleaning. Without them, the company, and I'm sure many other ground handling companies, would probably not able to function. Is it fair to have an generalized sweeping statement that could possibly cripple our economy?

There is also talks regarding the high ministerial pay given to our leaders. Well, I can't deny the fact that the pay is high, however, the need to deter corruption should be the main focus here. Would you rather pay your government more to prevent corruption, or would you rather the rich people running your country while throwing their spare cash at your political leaders?

Last but not least, PAP posters in Aljunied has been torn down and vandalized. In a democratic election, you don't have to show any disapproval for opposing parties, but just support for your idealistic parties. If opposition party supporters could show such uncouth behaviour, what would Singapore become if the government ends up as a coalition of opposition parties?

Like I said, food for thought. (: